What the Recent Google Ad Scandal Tells Us About Big Data Capitalism

Companies and the UK government pulled advertisements from YouTube after it had been revealed that some of these organisation’s ads were presented together with videos featuring anti-Semitism, white supremacist ideology, hate speech inciting violence, and right-wing extremism.

The mainstream media reported about this phenomenon, which resulted in public complaints that Google did not properly control YouTube content. Such arguments misunderstand the political economy of algorithmic advertising. The problem is not simply a moral one, but has to do with how big data capitalism works.